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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Ugly Truth - Organizing My Spaces

WARNING! If you are looking for pretty images today, turn away to avoid disappointment!

Kuettel.com

Okay...so, the UGLY truth. I am super busy organizing just like the rest of blog land. What's so ugly about that? Well, while I see post after post about beautiful baskets, boxes and wonderful hall trees full of well coordinated and staged items, that is just not the real world in my current life. Don't get me wrong. I think this image to the right is amazing. I just can't imagine creating this type of space in my home. It just wouldn't remain looking this this.

That's why I am talking ugly. For me, organizing doesn't necessarily mean pretty. It means organized enough to tolerate seeing it, or organizing spaces with doors that I can close!

For example, here is my teenage son's clothing shelves that use to clutter up his room. A while back, I blogged about this shelving unit (HERE) and how the perfectly adequate curtain that use to cover up his mess was gone. Where you ask? Who knows? It was just gone. Never to found again. If you notice, he doesn't have a ton of clothes, so I decided to condense the space he has for his stuff and this is what I came up with. I bought this plastic drawer from Target, had him move his clothes into the drawers and shoved it in his closet. Done. The closet door closes on this, so it doesn't need to be pretty. This is not a pretty reveal pic, but it's the ugly truth.

Next, was this cabinet in my kitchen that I like to keep an assortment of bowls and containers. It is always a mess of miss-matched and stack items. I can't tell you how many times a has bowl fallen out on us as we opened the cabinet. Ouch! So, I went to Lowes and bought a few chrome legged shelves (is that you call them?) in an attempt to make the inside of this cabinet livable. It works. I love it. Simple...but again, not pretty. In fact, an ugly image that isn't necessarily blog worthy. But again, this is the ugly truth.

Haven't had enough of ugly? Okay. Well, this past weekend I bought these two shelving units for 15 bucks. I originally was going to challenge myself to transform them in one day. I had big ideas.

But then, they came home and were set in my outdoor, covered studio space and I realized that I wanted them to organize all my supplies. I needed something to help me bring it all together. I have previously been storing this stuff in nooks here and there. Now, it sits in this space filled with everything I need to work. Ahh... No more time wasted searching for items as I need them.

Once again, not pretty. In fact, ugly. But, like I said previously, this is the ugly truth. I also got a new super large canvas drop cloth for the area. I have been spending way too much time in the past cleaning up drips. Not anymore!

So now I can start working on the projects that I have stacked up. I am going to start with this...

Yep. Ugly. This antique mantel use to be white and chippy. I bought it 10 years ago during our one year in Atlanta. Over the years my daughter had it in her room. At some point, she had me paint it to match her room. I know...what was I thinking? Amazing what one will do to make their kids happy! Her room no longer looks like this. I showed you her new room right HERE. Regardless, this mantel has sat off to the side awaiting help for a while. It's time to tackle it.

So, no pretty images today. There just isn't anything too pretty going on over here. So THERE! Take that! I hope you didn't mind me speaking truth today. It's just that this is the way it is...the ugly, ugly truth. I promise, pretty is coming soon. Promise.

I love it. Your truth is my truth too. I just haven't been brave enough to do a wide shot of my garage. lol I could never keep a perfect workspace either. It lasts about one day. I'm a sloppy worker. I have to reorganize at least twice a week. I love your attitude my friend.

It looks pretty good to me! Right now I have project after project stashed in our little basement along with Christmas gifts waiting to be wrapped. And I can barely walk through the garage without knocking something over!

How true for us all! I can not tell you how many times over the years I started an organized space which turned to clutter. Now, I like doors and lots of places to put things that will not be seen! BTW your studio with those shelves looks great!